05 August 2013

VIDEO: Jay-Z, Barney Frank Debate "Stop and Frisk" on "Real Time"

The panelists on the latest episode of Real Time with Bill Maher debated stop and frisk, Trayvon Martin and racial profiling. Barney Frank—who recently retired after three decades in Congress and was the House's senior out member—noted that budget cuts fueled by conservative Republican agendas have reduced the number of police officers and social workers. Frank was criticized by fellow panelist Jay-Z after suggesting that people in low-income neighborhoods wanted "more" police officers.

"More jobs would be better than police," said the hip-hop icon to much applause. "I don’t want to scare America, but the real problem is there’s no middle class; the gap between the have’s and the have not’s is getting wider and wider. It’s going to be a problem that no amount of police can solve."

Jay-Z—who grew up in Brooklyn's Marcy Projects—also sparred with Frank over life in public housing. Watch AFTER THE JUMP ...